Use of data for digital marketing

We may pass email addresses of applicants to our third-party data processor which provides advertising and digital media services to BU. They use the email addresses along with information and tools on social media platforms to identify other people (who have not already applied to BU) who may be suitable recipients of digital advertisements relating to BU and then to deliver adverts to them on that social media platform. This is called finding “lookalike audiences” and is a common approach within digital advertising. It is based on identifying individuals who share certain interests, connections or characteristics with people who have already applied to us, using information in their social media profiles. We do not use this data to target advertising at the owners of the email addresses, i.e. people who have already applied to BU, unless we have collected consent to do so, nor will our data processors use it to contact you in any way. Individuals should only see this advertising in accordance with the social media platform’s privacy/website & cookies policies and if they have agreed to this within their preferences/privacy settings for the platform.

• Necessary for legitimate interests pursued by BU, i.e. providing information to increase understanding of BU’s courses and services amongst potential applicants to BU. Identifying the individuals most likely to find this information useful.

There are several different routes through which you may end up seeing targeted digital advertising of BU. You may have been identified as an appropriate recipient of our adverts through identification of a “lookalike audience” as described in the previous section, or based on online behaviours using cookies (which record visits to or interactions with particular webpages) or programmatic/smart display advertising. This may include advertising generated using cookies/pixels created when you visited the BU website.

We use targeted digital advertising because we believe it is a good method for providing individuals with information of genuine interest and use to them and widening the field of applicants to BU, while avoiding a situation where other individuals are given information of no relevance or interest to them.

These methods of targeting advertising do not involve processing your personal data, i.e. any data that definitively identifies you as an identifiable individual. You should only see this sort of advertising in accordance with:

• The cookies policy on any websites recording cookies/pixels for use in targeting advertising and any relevant preferences you have set on those websites; and
• The privacy policies of the site or browser which displays the adverts and any relevant preferences you have set on those sites/browsers.

The cookies policy for BU’s website can be viewed here. This includes information about how to let us know of any concerns about management of your cookies.